Chapter 98

"I've got to admit,"Jake said as the elevator began to make its decent. "I've actually missed this place."

"Me too," Claire agreed.

"I'm just glad Richter agreed to let you come," Dana added as they descended to sub-level three.

"Mitigating factors," Jake said, repeating Richter's term for extending the parameters of his house arrest. "Though, I think he would've agreed to anything to get you off the phone."

"Persistence pays off, right, Dr. Gray?" Claire added, her mood lighter than Jake had seen in days.

Dana grinned. "That's right."

"More like pesky," Jake teased.

Elbowing him, Dana said, "I prefer the term persuasive."

The ding announced their arrival and the heavy stainless-steel doors rolled open. The potent smell of old books assaulted Jake as he followed the women into the climate-controlled interior.

It was almost as cold as the frigid spring night in the underground section of the Smithsonian, but Dana had been right about one thing. This was the safest place for them to be tonight.

Even with Dvita locked up, threats remained. If someone else was killed with a scythe tonight, they'd know they had the wrong guy. If not, they'd make the most of their time digging into every known legend of scythes, Reapers, and the Seven Sleepers; which is what led them here. Every case he and Dana had worked had started here, in her subterranean lair of all things supernatural below the Smithsonian.

"Work it with me,"Dana had whispered on her porch. "Like we used to. In the beginning."

Maybe she was right. Maybe the answers they were looking for lay here, hidden in one of these centuries' old books, just waiting to be dusted off to spill their secrets.

Claire had jumped at the distraction. And Dana had agreed to Jake's terms. "We stick together. You, me, and Claire, to the end."

There had been a short argument about him being needed elsewhere, to look for his father, but with Jake's suspension in place, it was a moot point and Dana reluctantly agreed.

"So," Jake said, taking in the grand splendor of the towering stacks. "Where do we start?"

Dana grinned, leading them over to the row labeled, Christian Artifacts. "At the beginning."